While natural disasters in Taiwan often mean dining at your neighborhood convenience store, for many Taipei residents, finding a 7-Eleven open was a luxury as floods forced shops to close their doors.
More than 300 7-Eleven (
The total losses incurred by convenience stores could reach more than NT$10 million, company executives said.
"About 110 Family Mart convenience stores suffered power outages and around 70 were damaged by the floods. The degree of flooding varied -- some were 5cm to 10cm deep in water while others were more greatly inundated.
"According to our preliminary estimate, the loss in equipment and facilities amounts to over NT$10 million already," said Chang Rin-dung (
7-Eleven chain stores didn't fare much better.
"As many as 150 7-Eleven stores were flooded in the Taipei area," said Wang Wen-hsin (
"The worst affected location is in the Taipei Train Station, which was completed submerged. The total loss of the incident has not yet been calculated, but it's all covered by insurance. However, the interruption to business is not covered," Wang said.
"Currently we are trying every method we can to clean up the stores, like pumping out water from basements and throwing out everything that's been damaged by the floods. No customer will purchase merchandise that's been damaged in the flood," Wang said.
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